Eva Longoria in Dubai

The actress, activist and philanthropist talks Desperate Housewives, new projects and women in Hollywood.

What keeps bringing you back to Dubai?It’s just incredible, it’s one of my favourite places to come to, especially at this time of year. I love the hotels, the people and the restaurants. There are so many new venues opening that you can’t possibly keep up. It’s just magical, I love how eclectic and metropolitan it is. You can’t even take five steps without hearing ten different languages.

Your charities are aimed mostly at women. Do you think there are still biases in Hollywood between men and women?There are definitely gender discrepancies in Hollywood. Women age out of the industry and get paid less, but that’s not just with Hollywood, that’s across the board in any industry. In the US, women make 76 cents for every dollar a man makes. So there’s a lot of work to be done to create gender equality. I think Hollywood is a good example because it has a very large platform. One of the problems in Hollywood is we don’t have enough women behind the camera or female writers, directors and producers. But once you’re in that seat, you can create the stories you want to see. So I always encourage women to become filmmakers rather than actresses – to create a change.

SIMILAR ARTICLES

Devious Maids is back for season three this year, which you direct and produce. Would you consider starring in it?I always said if I was going to go on Devious Maids I’d like to go on as Gaby [Longoria’s character in Desperate Housewives] and do that cross over with Marc Cherry [Creator of Devious Maids and Desperate Housewives].

Are there any TV Series that you would like to star in if you could?I’d love to be in Game of Thrones, I’d like to be a witch or a giant or something magical, or anybody who encounters Jon Snow, he’s my favourite. Not so much Kit Harington, but Jon Snow.

Is there an actress whose career you admire?I’m a big Jennifer Aniston fan because she was on a TV show for a long time and then moved over to film – not that I want to move to film – but I could just watch anything she’s in. She doesn’t take herself too seriously. She picks fun projects and she’s beautiful and likeable. I like her career.

Everyone asks if there will be a Friends reunion…Do people ask her that? I’m so glad they do because I feel like they only ask us [the Desperate Housewives cast] that question.

So would you like a Desperate Housewives reunion?I miss playing Gaby so much, so I wouldn’t mind it. It was such a fun show and a fun decade of my life. Season one was just amazing.Season three of Devious Maids airs on OSN. For more information visit www.osn.com.